Create a Rustic Picket Garden Planter Box

$58.78 is the cost of this store bought planter box! So create your own for under $15!

Have you seen how much planter boxes are for the garden?

I have and just the other day I was walking the aisle of The Home Depot where I saw a price tag of $58! So I decided to create a rustic picket garden planter box and share my gardening project with you.

I am lucky to have a (power electric) compound miter saw so cutting the 45 degree angles is a bit faster but you can simply buy a miter box and saw for around $20-25 dollars which will come in handy for future DIY projects in the home and garden. I also have a Ridgid cordless impact driver which makes DIY jobs so much easier. I love Ridgid because they have a lifetime warranty and are powerful enough to do my DIY home and garden projects. Impact driver (what you can put the screw driver bit in) are a must have if you plan on doing more DIY projects so invest once in a great set of tools. (THIS IS JUST MY OPINION BECAUSE I HAVE HAD MANY DIFFERENT BRANDS AND PREFER RIDGID NOW)

Create the rustic picket garden planter box

I ended up making the box roughly 31″H x 10″W x 12″ D and this could easily be made up to 36″wide with the wood purchase above. I had an oops so my box ended up being 31″ which worked out well because the box is easier to pick up and move (empty). I have built square planter boxes and created concrete baskets throughout my garden.

This rustic picket fence garden planter box (boy that was a mouthful) will age and the wood will become browner with age. I have built garden arbor, garden trellis, garden bridge, and tables out of these pine treated fence pickets and I love the way these pickets age (darker).

Here are the directions for the basic planter box

The directions are simple for this and measurements could vary if you want to build it to your size. I do have to add one important tip- make sure to check the thickness of each picket because the sides need to be approximately the same thickness or the trim will not sit flush and hold the sides together (as shown in picture). Here’s the cuts you will make:

(14) 12″ fence pickets for the sides -precut these pieces

(6) 10″ fence pickets for the bottom- precut these pieces

(6) 1″ x 2″ strips cut approximately at 13″ -cut after you assemble the sides/bottom

(6) 1″ x 2″ strips cut approximately at 31″

These cuts are approximate because pickets can vary in size and older pickets dry and shrink as much as a 1/4″

You can make this planter box as wide as you want and I measure in increments of 5 1/2″ or the width of the pickets if they vary in your area.

Using the width of the pickets as a guide for the size eliminates the need to cut the pickets (ie 6 pickets @ 5 1/2″ = 33″)

Pictured here are 6 board sides but I had to eliminate 1 picket that was thicker than the rest using only 5 pickets per side to make this planter box 31″

Do not cut trim 1″x 2″ pieces until sides and bottom are assembled (note 5 pickets= 27.5″) since these pickets can vary as much as 1/4″

Attach the trim pieces bottom and top using the screwsAfter you attach the trim pieces move on to the trim pieces that are cut 45 degrees flat for the trim around the top.

This is without the 1″x2″ trim around the top edge.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my big box store garden planter hack. If you ever have any questions, feel free to comment below or contact me. This is an easy to moderate project if you can saw a board, have a miter box, tape measure, and my favorite SPAX screws from The Home Depot which eliminates the need to pre-drill any holes.